The Mystery Box
by atthebeginningwithyou
Summary: Grissom and Sara discover something totally 80s.  An “I Love the 80 Ficathon Entry” My prompt was lovely 80s technology.  Read and enjoy!


**Title**: The Mystery Box  
**Author**: atthebeginningwithyou / mypointe  
**Rating**: K  
**Prompt:**Technology  
**Summary**: Grissom and Sara discover something totally 80s.  
**Disclaimer**: None of them belong to me…

**Spoilers**: None really. Everything up to "Way to Go" I suppose.  
**Author's Notes**: An "I Love the 80 Ficathon Entry" My prompt was lovely 80s technology. Read and enjoy!

"Hey Honey? What's this?" Grissom shouted over his shoulder as he picked up a medium sized dusty box from the back corner of Sara's closet.

"What's what?" Sara questioned as she came through the doorway of what was soon to be her ex-bedroom.

Grissom turned towards Sara with the aforementioned box in his hands. "This box. I would have opened it, but its sealed shut, so I don't know if it is private or anything," he shrugged with a lopsided grin.

"Get your mind out of the gutter," Sara smirked as she swapped him on the shoulder. She dusted her dirt crusted hands on her jeans before she took the box out of his.

Sara eyed the box for a moment before placing it on the bed and settling her hands on her hips. She tilted her head to the side and bit on her bottom lip; Grissom admired her stance for a moment and grinned to himself as he saw his fiancée's mind churning.

"Well…" he prompted as Sara seemed to be lost in her own thoughts for a moment. He snuggled up behind her and wrapped his arms around her middle as he pressed a gentle kiss into her shoulder.

"I don't remember what is in here," Sara finally answered as she turned the box over in her bed. It was a plain old brown box, the same type any standard packing company gives out, no writing on any of the sides or the bottom, just a long durable strip of packing tape keeping the top flaps of the box snugly shut.

Grissom turned his face so his eyes met hers and an eyebrow cocked in surprise, "So you've had a mystery box lying around in the back of your closet for all these years?"

"I guess so. I was in such a rush to move to Vegas, most of my things were packed by movers and shipped down here," Sara said as she fingered a raised corner of packing tape on the side of the box.

They were silent for a moment as Sara relaxed and leaned back into Grissom's warm frame. "Well?" Grissom prodded as he poked her in the side. "Are you going to open it?"

"You are really curious, aren't you?" Sara smirked as she twisted her torso to face him.

"What can I say?" he shrugged. "I'm just interested in what Sara Sidle could have hidden away all these years."

"If you are expecting anything dirty, you're going to be disappointed," Sara wriggled out of his arms and reached for the pair of scissors on the cluttered vanity.

Flipping the scissors open with a flick of her wrist, Sara located the gap between the flaps underneath the packing tape. Carefully, she slipped the blade through the gap and made a gentle slice across the top of the box. Setting the scissors aside, Sara ran her fingers in between the long cut and popped back the flaps. Both Grissom and Sara choked on the old musty smell as a cloud of dust poofed out.

Sara swatted the air in front of her to chase away some of the dust and started to dig into the box. She removed the crumpled newspaper that hid the contents of the box and dropped the yellowing pages on the floor.

"Oh my gosh," Sara breathed out.

"What is it?" Grissom questioned as he looked over her shoulder.

"I can't believe I still have this," Sara said as she picked the item out of the box. "I though I lost it years ago!"

"Is that what I think it is?" Grissom asked with a mystified look on its face.

"It's ColecoVision!" Sara said as she handed him one of the numbered keypad controllers. I got this the year it came out on the market. I was in one of the few good foster homes. Mr. and Mrs. McGill couldn't have children of their own, so they became foster parents. I remember that Christmas like it was yesterday. December 1982." Sara sighed, "Unfortunately, Mr. McGill died the next February so all five of us kids were shipped off to different homes. Mrs. McGill gave us some toys to take with us, and I ended up with the ColecoVision."

Grissom gave Sara a squeeze on her elbow as she put the system down and started to dig deeper into the box. "Lets see, Donkey Kong, Mouse Trap, Lady Bug," Sara dug a couple more cartridges out of the box before she let an excited squeak, "Oh! Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle, I used to love this game!" Grissom watched in amazement as a big grin spread across her face. "I never thought that you would be a video gamer." "Neither did I at the time," she smiled. "But my nose was always stuck in a book and Mrs. McGill thought it would be good to have other interests and interact with the other kids in the house. It was fun, some of my best memories during that time were playing and escaping reality with the other kids." "So what happened?" Grissom asked casually as he pulled the remaining contents out of the musty box. "Well the next foster home wasn't as nice as the McGill's. That foster father was more interested in the bottle than the welfare of the three kids who lived there," she said with a grimace. "I just never played with it again, and I guess it just stayed in my suitcase as a reminder of some of the better times. I guess I never had the heart to get rid of it." 

"Well, if something is that important to you, I'm glad you didn't," Grissom said as he planted a kiss in her hair.

Sara smiled and tried to lean back into Grissom's warm frame again, but he reached around her and picked up the ancient machine and its controllers.

"What are you doing?" Sara inquired with a raised eyebrow.

"Come on, this thing won't play itself," Grissom said with an excited childish grin as he headed into the living room.

"Grissom," Sara called after him as she maneuvered around a large box in the middle of the floor. "The movers are going to be here in two days and we aren't even close to packing up the rest of my apartment!"

"Aww come on Honey," Grissom cajoled, as he started to plug cables into the TV set. "All work and no play makes Gil a sad boy."

"I thought the saying was: All work and no sex makes Gil a sad boy."

Grissom paused for a moment and turned his head towards Sara who was leaning against the doorframe. "Well, that's true too," he deadpanned. "Come on, Sara. It will be fun."

Sara sighed deeply and pushed her body off the frame, "I guess we could use a break." Sara eased herself down on the couch and picked up a controller. "I wonder if this old thing still works."

Grissom plugged the last wire in and hoisted himself onto the couch with the other controller in hand. "I guess it does," he said as he flicked the switch and the system came to life.

"Ever play this before?" Sara asked Grissom as the words "Donkey Kong" flashed across the screen.

"Well, I was more of an Atari man," he smiled.

"Oh, you're going down," Sara challenged as she gave him a puckered smirk.

"It's on," Grissom countered back as the rickety machine whirred to life.

Two laugh-filled days passed as scores were beaten, ice cream was shared, spilled popcorn littered the carpet, and the last boxes were packed and moved out of the way.

Two days later, as the movers took out the last box and the professional cleaners vacuumed the last carpet, Sara took one last look around her apartment as she tucked the beloved ColecoVision under her arm.

"Time for us to make new happy memories," she whispered to herself and the video game system as she closed her old front door one last time. Soon she would be opening the front door of her new home in a townhouse 20 blocks away where she would be greeted by the man she loved and a lumpy hunk of fur named Hank.


End file.
